Sardines: What over crowding really looks like

FACT:

Our schools are overcrowded.  Seriously, grossly, ridiculously overcrowded.

What does that mean in numbers? It means that a school that was built to house 500 children, actually has 800-900 children in it. This isn't  just happening at one school; it is happening at ALL our schools. It means we could build a new elementary every single year and still not have enough room in our elementary schools for all our children. It means that there are almost more children attending school in portable buildings than in actual school buildings. It means Chiawana is the largest high school in the state and Pasco High isn't that far behind.

We're talking about "bursting-at-the-seams-defying-the-laws-of-gravity" full!

But kids aren't numbers. They are tiny humans who must live and learn and interact.  So what does over crowding look and feel like?

Overcrowding is when six-year-olds only get eight minutes to eat their lunch because they have to get out to make room for the next bunch of  children coming in to eat.

No time to eat your carrots, just throw them away and keep the line moving!

Overcrowding is when 40 girls try out for a middle school softball team, so they have to take turns playing every other week.

Overcrowding is a high school where the average student has never even met the principal, let alone formed a relationship with him or her.

Overcrowding is a brand new art room filled with supplies that will never be used because the art room just got converted into a third grade classroom.

Overcrowding is children being marginalized as they become just a random face in a sea of students, feeling disenfranchised.

Dude? Who just touched my butt? This isn't a subway ya know.

Overcrowding is holding assemblies in waves because you will never ever fit all of your students together in one gym.

Overcrowding is precious children being reduced to the numbers they contribute to and a cog in the system that needs to be simply turned.

Overcrowding is a principal welcoming in over 125 new kindergartners a year, into a sea of nearly one thousand students.

Have you ridden a school bus to McLoughlin lately? Here's what you're missing.

Overcrowding is students who have to change teachers (and sometimes even schools!) weeks into the school year because there isn't enough room to stay in the class they were originally assigned to.

Overcrowding is an elementary student who only gets taught music once a week because that's all the time available to each of the forty different classes she has to teach.

Overcrowding is a place called Portable City, where your middle school student only enters the main building once a day for lunch at 10:20 because they have to eat in shifts in order to fit everyone in.

Overcrowding is high school teachers sharing classrooms because there aren't enough rooms to go around, some times as many as three teachers in one room.  English being taught in math rooms, and history taught in science labs. The visuals and extra learning tools we would expect to see as part of a world class learning environment are unavailable simply because of space.

I can totally scaffold these lesson plans to accommodate the needs of the 40 kids in my class, no problem, I'll get right on it just as soon as I can get back into my classroom after the band teacher is done using it.

Overcrowding is an elementary orchestra class that meets in another teachers classroom during their prep hour, depriving the students of a proper environment to practice and the teacher of a proper place to plan.

Overcrowding is kids who will never be able to play sports because there are already too many kids on the team.

Overcrowding is bullying and fighting because there are more than 2000 students in the halls at the same time and there is no way for administrators to properly supervise them.

Overcrowding is never having the option to change schools no matter what the hardship because no school has room for even one more child.

My school has a brand new art room, but I"ll never see it because it's being used for math.

Overcrowding is Art on a Cart. It sounds cuter than it is.  There are no rooms left for art or music to have their own space. Teachers must bring all their supplies from classroom to classroom limiting what  they are able to prepare and use with students.

Overcrowding is not having enough building administrators to cover the needs of all the children.

Overcrowding is students who have their opportunities to participate and excel in extra curricular programs limited because of sheer overwhelming numbers.

The more the merrier! I'm happy being "just one more!"

Overcrowding is when middle and high school teachers have to change rooms every hour because there aren't enough classrooms for them to have their own. They can't be at the door to greet students when they arrive because they are trapped themselves in the hall among the hundreds of students also making their way through the chaos. Teachers can't take a few minutes to answer questions after class because they are rushing out the door to get to their next room assignment.  Teachers are limited to the supplies and resources they can carry with them.

Overcrowding is spending 20 minutes of your 25 minute lunch time in line waiting for food that is likely to run out before you even get to the front of the line.

Overcrowding is when a school uses a closet for a special education classrooms because it is the only space left available.

If it's good enough for Harry, it's good enough for me!

Overcrowding is a small number of adults watching nearly a thousand children on a single playground before school every morning.

Overcrowding is decreased family involvement because it's not worth fighting the crowd of hundreds to get into the building on Monster Math night.

Wow. That's  a lot of kids.

Overcrowding is teachers not knowing the other teachers in their building.

Overcrowding is students not knowing the other students in their building.

Overcrowding is not forming relationships, not making connections, being lost, and not belonging.

Just keep packing them in like sardines.  It won't make a difference.

OPINION:

In my humble opinion, there is no such thing as a bad bond in Pasco right now.  We need more space. Seriously! WE NEED MORE SPACE!  It doesn't really matter where. The west side is the most crowded. The elementary and high schools are the most crowded.  Some schools are horribly overcrowded. Some are grossly overcrowded. A few are just extremely overcrowded.  But EVERYTHING is crowded.  So no matter what is on the upcoming bond, we NEED it. WE NEED IT! I don't know what we need most. But there is no such thing as a bad bond at this point. We need schools of all shapes and sizes and locations. We need more schools. Every kind of school!

Well....
all kinds of schools except not preschools.

The one thing we don't need to pay for right now is a preschool.

We are overcrowded. DUH!  Why would we bring in more kids when we don't even have room for the k-12 students we've got right now?  That's just crazy!

And while any bond is a good bond at this point, there are some that are better than others.  One new building is good. Two new buildings is better. Three new buildings would be awesome! Ten new buildings would be pefection.

But let's be realistic. We can't actually run a bond with ten new buildings on it.  But what we can do is run a bond (and run our mouths) as if we actually have a clear picture of how we are going to deal with how massively behind the growth curve we are right now.

The school board recently agreed on a bond option that includes one new elementary, rebuilding Stevens, and adding a couple of classes to CHS and Marie Currie.  Those are all great things. Those are all things we need. BUT REALLY? IS THAT THE BEST WE CAN DO?

The school board thinks the community won't vote for a bond that's too high. They also think the overcrowding isn't THAT bad. And they have said they don't want to have to run another bond for 5 or 6 years.  We are several thousand children over capacity today.  We will be several thousand more children over capacity in five years.  Is one new elementary going to be enough? Obviously not.  We need more.

I believe the community will vote big (you did for the levy *thanks*) and that we need more than just one new school and a couple of classrooms on the bond.

There isn't much time to change the boards mind, but if they hear enough from the community about what you are willing to support on a bond, they may overturn this week's vote in favor of a better plan.

CALL TO ACTION:

1. Let the school board and the bond committee know what you'd like to see on the next bond. Let them know you will support a big bond. Do it today!
2. Get involved with the bond committee and help raise awareness about the bond.
3. Tell your friends why you support Pasco schools.
4. Vote for school bonds (no matter what) and encourage your friends to do the same. Voting no on a bond only punishes kids.  The board does not EVER get the message you are trying to send.  They still think the last failed bond was because no one wanted a middle school.   ??? 

Good luck my friends.

The Real Face of the Evil Union

In one form or another, most people have pretty strong opinions about unions. They either love them or hate them.

Behold, the evil UNION!

The Union: guardian of the little people.

As soon as contract negotiations caught the public's attention this summer, people (and by "people" I mean PSD and their ever forth coming Q & A  messages) began shouting these warnings:



"We don't want the union taking over our schools."

"The union wants to decide what books your children read."

"The union is using scare tactics to stir up public anger against the district."

"There is no problem with curriculum. The union has tricked the teachers into striking."

"The union is trying to make an example of PSD as part of a national power grab."

"The union has taken over Pasco."

"The union ate my baby."

Eventually things settled down. The district agreed to resolve the curriculum issue, and teachers went back to work. That should have been the end of it.

But it wasn't.

Strangely enough, there are still board members bemoaning the evils of the union. Still.  Now it'd be one thing if an average uninformed citizen was spouting off about how unions are the devil. But a board member isn't just anybody. They are elected to represent the public and inform decision making at the highest level of the school district. So when board members (yes, more than one) talk about he union like it's some type of evil boogie man, that is something worth noticing.

Is the union the root of all evil in Pasco? Has the union been sent by the devil himself to stir up contention and unrest? I decided to take a closer look at see exactly what kind of devil we are up against here in Pasco.

Behold, the face of EVIL!

The evil union in all it's might!

Ahhhhh!!!!

Pretty hideous right? I mean could anything be more frightening than a smiling, young woman wearing mittens and a mid-calf length skirt, spending her free time out on the street corner encouraging voters to support a school levy?  GROSS!

What about these monsters?

Wow, showing up to work and pretending to be happy. What Creeps!

Attending a community prayer meeting and praying with school board members.
Where does this kind of scum even come from? Seriously!

Oh gross! Not more levy supporters. These monsters just don't know when to quit.

So are unions really evil? The fulfillment of prophecy sent to usher in the apocalypses?

?????

Here's the thing about things: they are just things.
Things aren't good or evil, they just are. A blanket isn't inherently good or evil. It can do good things, like warm you up when you are cold. It can do bad things, like transmit disease to susceptible populations. A blanket is just a blanket. It's what you do with it that matters.

A union is just a union. They aren't inherently bad or good. The people in them may do bad or good things. But the thing itself is just a thing.

So let's not talk anymore about whether unions are good or bad (let the politicians duke that one out). Instead let's talk about whether PAE (the Pasco Association of Educators) is good or bad.  Let's judge it by who is in it and what they do.

Well, we all know who is in it. Teachers. These loving, smiling, amazing people who take care of our children every day, and who even take time outside of the classroom to fight for what's best for our kids (even if it's so cold you need mittens).

And what has PAE done? I mean besides come to work every day ready to do their best to love and teach our children and prepare them for the world ahead of them?

• They participated in a number of activities including a state-wide walk out in hopes of persuading our legislator to fully fund our schools and stop over-testing our children.
• They shed a giant spotlight on Pasco's atrocious lack of curriculum forcing the district to finally take action on an issue they've been avoiding and denying for more than a decade. Although the district continued to try and persuade teachers with money, the union held strong and refused to return to work until the district agreed to a contract that included books for all children, in all grades, in all subjects.
• They worked side by side with parents to help pass a much needed levy.
• They demanded (and are getting) much needed repairs to schools such as New Horizon's High School, as well as getting hot water back on in the bathrooms at Pasco High.
• They fought to keep the heater running in the winter and the air conditioner running in the spring in classrooms where children were being forced to learn in nearly uninhabitable classrooms (yeah, that really happened).
• They have been strong advocates fighting for safe and age appropriate playgrounds for students.
• They are continuing to fight the district on a number of issues including using our children for guinea pigs to line the pockets of researchers (Literacy Squared) and to fight illegal hiring practices that can lead to huge disparity in quality between schools (like when administrators narrowly tailor job listing in order to hire their unqualified friends instead of hiring actual teachers with job appropriate qualifications).

So the next time you find yourself face to face with that awful scary evil union, be sure to thank them.  After you, they are your child's greatest advocate. They are our partners in educating our community. 

So to all my friends in PAE, thank you.